This is an artist's concept of the near stellar environment of the star Beta Pictoris. This illustration is based upon recent observations made with the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. This illustration shows three major components of the near stellar region, which is roughly the size of our inner Solar System. The reddish center ring (C) is a diffuse gas disk, which has a stable orbit around the star. This ring surrounds an inner disk (D) of gas which is slowly drifting toward the star. The white "comet-like" features in this bluish disk are dense streams of gas spiraling down the star gravitational potential "well." The outer filamentary structures (A&B), first detected by the Space Telescope, may be an expanding gas halo, or foreground features seen in the local interstellar medium. The disk's structure and dynamics are inferred from the GHRS spectra of Fe II line profiles (left.) The spectra taken on January 12, 1991 (bold line) are markedly different form those taken 23 days later, (thin line) on February 4. This indicates the presence of a "lumpy" turbulent cloud of moving gas which dramatically changes the structure of gas over a short time periods. A ground based view of the Beta Pictoris system (upper left) shows that the gas disk is embedded deep within a much broader disk of dust particles more than 100 billion kilometers across which has been detected previously in ground based observations.
Credits
Credit: Dana Berry (STScI)| About The Object | |
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| Object Name | Beta Pictoris |
| R.A. Position | 05h 47m 17.08s |
| Dec. Position | -51° 3' 59.45" |
| About The Object | |
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| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
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| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
